Last night at dinner, I asked my wife, “Was 'Catcher in the Rye' considered ‘young adult’ literature?”
She answered, “I read it when I was twelve. But, then I read 'Lord of the Files' then, too.”
So, I looked them both up. "Catcher" is frequently considered young adult but more so a coming of age novel. Never considered it in the same light as "Summer of ‘42."
"Lord of the Flies" draws more conflicted answers. While some consider it simply fiction, others frequently call it allegorical. One contributor labeled it as “post-apocalyptic dystopian fiction.” ("Eraserhead?")
Then my wife said, “Why do you ask?”
Now we’re back to the subject at hand. I suspect that in the last year, I’ve read more young adult books than I did when I was a pre-teen. I often tell friends that if it were not for cameras and mirrors, I’d still be seventeen. Perhaps I should include choice of literature?
Just as dinner arrived, I responded, “I asked, because I’m reading a book to review that is billed as young adult and it makes me think of 'Catcher' -- although it has been thirty years since I read Salinger’s classic.”
Roland McCray is the creation of author Blaine Coleman, who myself, is a boomer. I wonder if there are other boomers out there who read books about younger protagonists. Coleman writes in the first person with the authentic voice of a young boy. McCray tells a series of ten short stories, but not tall tales, called "Tunnels in the Briar Patch," with which boomers can identify and pre-teens can learn. Who among us did not as a child learn to ride a bike, explore graveyards, vacant lots, and forgotten parts of town? Boomers in their youth had to deal with many of the same social issues then as we still do today. Some topics are classic. Roland learns about life and death, prejudice and love. Human nature rarely changes. Aren’t life’s most important lessons best stated simply?
The young mister McCray relives aspects of every person’s childhood with that profound simplicity upon which complicated issues rest. Why does a pre-teen girl have to wear a wig? Why does even a small town have so many different cemeteries? Why should a pre-teen be concerned with the rapture?
If I continue reading young adult books, my book case in our reading room will have a shelf labeled, “YA for Boomers,” and "Tunnels in the Briar Patch" will have a prominent place there. Tunnels can be found on Amazon now as an e-book and will soon be available as an audio book. Joseph Cautilli5

With Tunnels in the Briar Patch, Blaine Coleman has created a work which makes him one of the most distinctive, talented, indie writes of our time. Told in a lyrical style through the wondered eyes of an eight year old child that makes the realistic life events feel a fairy tale of a more respectful time but no less violent or judgmental time in the US South. At points, little caveats of the judgmental reality seep through the grandma Adelaide not liking Mr. Genetti because he is foreign but as with most cultural and moral training, it is barely noticed by the character Roland his uncle being in the KKK and being a preacher to dodge taxes. Still the same chapter presents a good story on how being greedy can cost you. A true treasure of growing up in America with its tales of everyday of riding a bike, flying a kite and tragedies a girl getting badly burned and having no hair, this is unforgettable story of a time much less rushed then today. It shares experiences we can all relate to from our own childhoods playing in a cemetery or deciding whether or not to release a butterfly. Ultimately, the story of Roland is mature, reflective, and riveting. It sucks you in with tales of a child's reaction to his surroundings from hearing of a civil war battle of Petersburg, Virginia and relating it to Vietnam to his hearing the story of Noah and his surprise over a wrathful God, so different from a loving Jesus to finding a dead dog and coming home to be with the dog he grew to love, before you know it, you as the reader are swept into a colorful, dramatic, and ultimately satisfying emotional truth. Blaine ColemanAuthor 12 books14 Read

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